He was downright shocked to hear he had done something no player in the history of the NBA had done before.

Perhaps it was because it came in a loss and Johnson, like many of the true professionals in the game, rarely get excited about anything that doesn’t have a W attached to it.

But more likely it’s because Johnson doesn’t look at the game of basketball as a means to anything but winning for his teammates.

It’s why Johnson rolled his ankle for a seventh time this season on Monday night, stayed down for perhaps a few extra seconds and then was right back in the game running the floor like nothing happened.

The man’s pain threshold may not be legendary league wide, but within his own locker room, it’s something that leaves teammates like DeMar DeRozan wracking his brain to describe the impressiveness of it.

All Johnson did Monday night, in a reserve roll no less, was come off the bench, go a perfect 10-for-10 from the field and pull down 15 rebounds. But it was the 12 offensive boards combined with the perfect shooting night that put him in the NBA record books.

Never in the history of the game has that been done and if it’s a rather unique set of circumstances that puts Johnson in the record books, he’s fine with that.

“To get in the record books, at least it looks like you finally did something that was good,” he said. “Now I can say, OK, I hold an NBA record.”

But even happier for the recognition something like this brought about was head coach Dwane Casey who has leaned heavily on Johnson this year and very, very rarely been disappointed by the results.

“I tell you what, he did a heck of a job,” Casey said of Johnson’s 23-point, 15-rebound night. “Offensive rebounding, just his activity to put himself in position to get those rebounds, what he has done this year hasn’t really been appreciated. He’s probably giving up 50-60 pounds a lot of nights going against a guy like (Andrew) Bogut. Amir has been one of our true warriors this year and kind of sets the tone for the way we play ... the way we want to play.”

The 12 offensive boards are even more impressive when you consider he did that with just about zero help. Casey and the Raptors went into the game knowing the Warriors were going to run at each and every opportunity so the decision was made to have four guys retreating and setting up on defence with the shot and just the one Raptor hitting the offensive boards.

In the 31:47 Johnson was on the floor, he hit those offensive boards hard, or in Amir Johnson speak, the only way he knows how.

“Sometimes you can read the ball where it comes off the rim and sometimes you just get lucky and the ball comes to you,” Johnson said. “That game, it was both. I have kind of a knack for the ball and I always want to try for an offensive rebound.”

So far this year Johnson has started 21 games and come off the bench in 39 others. On Monday he was back to the bench for the single purpose of opening a spot in the starting five for Andrea Bargnani and hopefully get the struggling Italian going.

Casey said he didn’t hesitate to make the move, but he did discuss it with Johnson beforehand just to be safe.

“I talked to him about it and he wants to do what is best of the team and what’s best for the team right now is getting Andrea going and playing at a high level because Amir is going to get his minutes come hell or high water,” Casey said. “He understands that but he is a true professional. He’s the kind of guy you want your team to be about night in and night out.”

Casey makes one more point about Amir before moving on to problems area like the team’s frustrating defensive lapses and the lack of ball movement,” Casey said.

CATCHING ON

That didn’t take long.

Do something with enough repetition and teams are going to catch on.

Where the Raptors are concerned, head coach Dwane Casey believes teams have figured out that his team has become a little over reliant on Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan and they’re taking advantage. For Casey it explains the lack of ball movement that has stunted the offence to some degree lately.

“I think some of it is we were getting in the habit of throwing it to Rudy and watching Rudy or DeMar go to work and we can’t do that,” Casey said. “It has to be getting the people on the weak side going and if they don’t have it, go into a drive and kick mode and that’s what we did in the second half (in Oakland).”

Actually it was more the third quarter, when the Raptors put up 36 points that the ball seemed to move a little more, but Casey’s point is bang on. When teams can’t load up on Gay and DeRozan and have to respect the other options on the floor they are a much more effective team.

“We have to respect the other team’s ability to stop those two guys and when they send two guys to them, that means someone else is open, we have to start trusting the pass. I thought we trusted the pass more Monday night.

“We’ve been going through times where we don’t trust the pass and that we’re going to get it back,” Casey said. “That’s what we have to do with this team. It’s learning to play with each other.”